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You saw a price, placed an order, and by the time it processed the market had moved. Your limit order didn't fill, or your market order filled at a worse price. This is normal on thin-liquidity markets — here's how to work with it.
Between when you see a price and when your order enters the book, other traders may have bought at that level, shifting the best available price. Your limit order sits unfilled because the market has moved past your price. This is especially common during breaking news events when contracts move quickly.
A market order fills at the best available price — which may be significantly worse than the last traded price on a thin order book. If the book only has 5 contracts available at 62 cents, and you're buying 50, the remaining 45 fill at 65, 68, 71 cents, etc. Check order book depth before placing market orders.
Institutional traders and algorithmic market-makers on Kalshi can respond to new information faster than manual traders. When news breaks, algorithmic traders reprice contracts immediately. By the time a manual trader places an order, the 'good price' may be gone.
If new information arrived (announcement, data release, news story) while your order was pending, the market's probability estimate legitimately changed. The price movement reflects real new information, not a technical issue.
On small-volume contracts, a single order can move the price. If your order size is large relative to the book, filling it consumes all available liquidity at each price level, resulting in a worse average fill price than the quoted price.
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